Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-12-07
HOW TO MAKE BONNETS.
Inside Information Concerning the
Ways Of Milliners.
Imported French Hats Made i'm New York
establishments What Girls Who
Handle Them Have to Say
Facts and Figures.

According to a writer in the New York
Hal and Express, there are ten thousand
mllliners in New York and Brooklyn, about
one bonnet-builder to every fifty adult
women. Ten years ago an artistic milliner
was something of rare bird. To-day it is
safe to say the best New York mAliners
are hardly excelled in the world. The inn
ported bonnet is still looked upon by society
momen as the model of what a bonnet
ought TO be, but in spite of the continuous
growth of wealth and dress expenditure i'm
ported bonnets have appreciably diminished
IN number in the past five years.
Your bonnet is in the custom house. Mrs
Browne; it came by La Champagne but the
steamer was late in getting in, and those
officials are so tiresome that don't ex pect
to see my goods before this time tomorrow
So sorry to disappoint you"
Mrs. Browne looked vexed as well as dis
appointed. 'Isn't that too dreadful? I had
my plans all made to start to Lenox to-
night, but there's no use going without THAT
carriage bonnet from virot. Do send il
round the instant il comes inn
AT this point, in an actual discussion not
many days since, Theophile, the little Fl ench
mluner's little boy, who had just tr ptted
out from the penetralia of the work-r, ,onls.
came TO the rescue of both parties wit n the
zeal of on enfant terrible ''They are try
ng 1t on, Maman,' was what he said. s.Es-
telle has it just fnis."
Less than an hour later, in a fashio nable
millinery showroom, 1 noticed a blonde
beauty enjoying unalloyed bliss in the con-
temptation OF a dainty thing in blue and
gold. "You don't need to tell me. mad
ane," she said, turning to the waiting mil
hner, ''that this is French There is nobody
N America that could have given such a
droop to that feather
The milliner said nothing, and the brown
eyed girl who had arranged the droop of
that feather and great many otl aer equally
important feathers stood at my side and
smiled
SO much is expected of bonnet nova
days that competent bonnet-lnaker has a
trade requiring not skilled labor merely. but
artistic capabilities, and, for I'D small num-
Der OF craftswomen. an apprenticeship
longer and more severe than the average
doctor or lawyer undergoes On the profess
slonal schools. Millinery indeed, has grown
INTO profession, but one whit h, when mas
tered thoroughly pays woman better than
almost any wage-earning 1lrsut she can
enter
10 become hrst-class wor5Swoman re-
qtures from six to seven years tame Accord
mig to the figures given me hy the head of
the largest establishment in New York. if is
worth from SIS to $50 week for med;occr
TO good hands, $50 to S75, or even higher
nguces for trimmers and designers of ex-
ceptional talent.
spent an hour the other day in a milli-
merry worl1room where some sixty women
are employed, and watched the evolution of
round hat. The raw material of hat is
It's frame, and this went first through the
hands of the chief designer
This is a French model she said. ssand
altogether too low-cl.owned and fat trimmed
French fashions jump from one extreme to
ancther; last season hats were high: this
season they must he low. That is Partisan
doctrine, but in modifying it for American
tastes one must shade off a little more
gradually" A few touches with the scis-
sors and manipn ations with the fingers gave
the lnchoate hat a mere jaunty and tip
t'tted look, and them 1t went to a miss in her
teens with long yellow braids of hair who
sat by herself al IA window.
IL sew wires about the brims of hats and
straw bonnets." she told me. "I have boon
here eight months and they are Just begin
nlng TO let me lnut in silk lnings.n shipping
some lengths of brown silk for the purpose
The hat whose fate was watching went
from her hands to those of a pretty
girl somewhat older and with near
ly two years experience, who faced
1t dainty with velvet 1t was then
passed to a milliner proper, as the
word is used in somewhat restricted
technical sense, who prepared it for the
TRIMMER. The milliner put band of
pneasants' plumage about the rim and COW
cred the crown with a glossy plush, blend
ing shades of brown, bronze and olive to
match the feathers. The milliner was a
plquant brunette. She had been at work
nearly four years, and aspired shortly 10
become trimmer. This important per-
sonage, who keeps about four milliners
busy supplying her with material received
the hat last of all, mounted it on the ends
OF her hngers, gazed at it reflectively a
minute, and then proceeded to concoct a
bow, which she planted in exactly the right
place on the front, and pronounced it done
The little apprentice girl who sews wires
doesn't earn above 50 or So a week. The
older girl, who can be trusted to cut velvets
and plushes for facings, is paid any where
from 50 to SlO The milliner, who is often a
woman who hoped to be a trimmer. but
never developed ability enough for that
grade of the profession, does nothing but
put the outer cover of lace or beads or
plush upon bonnet, and is paid from $40 IN
sl4. A trimmer has to have inventive
gifts and be somewhat of a designer If
she has genius in this line she can name
her own wages.
Millinery is becoming so much of a fine
art that it attracts better educated girls
every year. 1t is going to be a profession
to which it will pay them to turn their time
and attention in preference to teaching.